I’m a third year mechanical engineering student. Currently I have an internship at a company that provides rotary converting solutions for the packaging industry. My assignment is to re-evaluate the current tolerances on one of the machines and see if any tolerances can loosen to possibly save money and make rotary tooling more interesting for smaller volumes. I’ve done some research and I haven’t found much useful information except the different kind of analyses and small examples of 1D problems. I’m kinda stuck at this moment on what to do. Can anyone help me out?
To start, one approach might be to identify what tolerances are actually costing you significant money. If the standard process you're using to manufacture the part is hitting your tolerances no problem, it's probably not a priority (not to say you can ignore it, but at your level of experience, I'd focus on the big wins). Once you've done the initial leg work, get some help from the more experienced designers and/or manufacturing personnel you have access to. Figure out how much you need to open up the tolerance to make a meaningful difference, and find out what the potential impact would be on performance. See if it's an acceptable risk.
